{"id":1444397,"date":"2023-12-17T16:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-17T21:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1444397"},"modified":"2023-12-17T16:40:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T21:40:00","slug":"california-circles-the-toilet-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/california-circles-the-toilet-bowl\/1444397\/","title":{"rendered":"California Circles The Toilet Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Circles The Toilet Bowl<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI go with the word \u2018serious.\u2019\u00a0 A serious budget problem.\u00a0 I would stop short of calling it a crisis.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek, on California\u2019s $68 billion deficit<\/em><\/p>\n

What Was It Like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

California, without question, is a great state to be from.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

We lived there for nearly 45 years.\u00a0 We made our\u00a0California exodus<\/a>\u00a0in July 2022.\u00a0 No regrets.<\/p>\n

In fact, not living in California becomes a greater blessing with each passing day. <\/strong>\u00a0Moreover, depending on the time lived there, and the decades encompassed, plenty of insight can be found in the answers to three simple questions.<\/p>\n

What was it like?\u00a0 What happened?\u00a0 What is it like now?<\/p>\n

The answer to the first question comes with warm reminiscence.\u00a0 A fond nostalgia for a California that long ago faded from existence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the early 20th century, before the mania to splatter every square foot of the LA Basin\u2019s surface with concrete took hold of the local spirits, the place was a magnet for eccentrics and madmen.\u00a0 On any average day, Howard Hughes, a total lunatic, would\u00a0crash test<\/a>\u00a0his latest flying machine into Beverly Hills.<\/p>\n

Italian immigrant Simon Rodia, however, was the real archetypical California oddball.\u00a0 For reasons unknown, and between swigs of malt liquor, he worked nearly every day from 1921 to 1955 chicken wiring steel pipes and rods together, erecting numerous towering eyesores in his backyard in the Watts district of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Then, after 34 years of this madness, Rodia, on a whim, deeded the property to his neighbor and hopped a bus to the East Bay.\u00a0 No one in Watts ever heard from him again.\u00a0 But his monstrosities, known as the\u00a0Watts Towers<\/a>, are now a National Historic Landmark.\u00a0 Go figure?<\/p>\n

There was also Griffith J. Griffith, who amassed a fortune in the mining industry.\u00a0 That was before he shot his wife in the eye while staying in the presidential suite of Santa Monica\u2019s Arcadia Hotel.<\/p>\n

To make good for his transgressions \u2013 and to commute his time in San Quentin to just two years \u2013 Griffith donated the land for Griffith Park to Los Angeles and funded the City\u2019s observatory.\u00a0 Without Griffith\u2019s private act of preservation, the city wouldn\u2019t have any remaining land that\u2019s not covered with concrete.<\/p>\n

What Happened?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

These were the sorts of wacky and wild characters that roamed about when state and local governments were small and feeble.\u00a0 When crime was low, and optimism was high.\u00a0 And the only direction the economy could go was up.<\/p>\n

This was back when the infrastructure shined.\u00a0 And Hollywood made descent movies.\u00a0 It was also the beginning of a long property boom\u2026where, for the next 50-years, property values went up without interruption.<\/p>\n

Even the most harebrained business ventures were almost guaranteed to succeed.\u00a0 For example, you could buy an old mail service boat \u2013 like\u00a0John Clearman<\/a>\u00a0did \u2013 tow it from the Long Beach Harbor up to a wide open corner lot on Huntington Drive in the San Gabriel Valley, plop it down, and get rich selling cheese toast and red cabbage salad out of it.<\/p>\n

This was before zoning codes, land use master plans, and city permits spoiled all the fun.\u00a0 Was the world a better place?\u00a0 It was certainly freer.<\/p>\n

Private eccentricity in California these days has been regulated away like the free-flowing carburetor.\u00a0 In its place, there\u2019s now state-sponsored\u00a0Transgender History Month<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the nation\u2019s first of its kind \u2013 and countless other acts of public madness.\u00a0 The cutting edge of public policy, guided by academic retards, slices through the land.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over several decades, state and local governments were taken over by control freak sociopaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, their socialist policies transformed many of the urban areas into unlivable hellholes.<\/p>\n

Shelling out for all the waste championed in Sacramento and various City Halls made it impossible for the average guy, who just wanted to work hard and pay his way, to get ahead.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

What Is It Like Now?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Today, California persists as a place of sky-high taxes, crumbling infrastructure, woke idiocy, and mass homeless encampments.\u00a0 Where grifters and freeloaders hold hands in symbiotic disharmony.\u00a0 Together, they exercise the malady of a mega homeless industrial complex in return for government lard.<\/p>\n

In the City of Los Angeles, over\u00a046,000 homeless people<\/a>\u00a0thrash about on the concrete each night, setting fires and\u00a0burning down bridges<\/a>.\u00a0 If you broaden the envelope to include Los Angeles County, that number jumps to over 75,000.<\/p>\n

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to fight homelessness these numbers keep going up.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t make sense until you understand how it all works.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The primary objective of the homeless industrial complex has nothing to do with getting people off the streets.\u00a0 Rather, dollars alone equal victory.\u00a0 And more money is the ultimate aim.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for taxpayers, more money isn\u2019t limited to securing private funds.\u00a0 It involves appropriating public funds and directing them towards the technocratic vision of forced philanthropy.<\/p>\n

According to a 2022 city audit, in the City of Los Angeles it costs\u00a0$837,000<\/a>\u00a0to build a single housing unit for one homeless person.\u00a0 In another instance, because of self-imposed regulatory knots, it took\u00a017 years<\/a>\u00a0to build 49 affordable housing units in Boyle Heights.<\/p>\n

Yet, this madness extends statewide.\u00a0 In San Jose, for example, it costs\u00a0$938,700<\/a>\u00a0to build a single unit of affordable housing.\u00a0 Certainly, there\u2019s plenty of grift built into California\u2019s homeless industrial complex.\u00a0 Did you get your cut?<\/p>\n

California Circles the Toilet Bowl<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Alas, countless other examples of government insanity extend up and down the entire state.\u00a0 Take the California Teachers Association.\u00a0 Rather than teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, the massive state teachers union\u00a0hides<\/a>\u00a0student gender identities from parents as a matter of legal policy.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also\u00a0Ebony Alert<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a faux-liberal twist on Amber Alert.\u00a0<\/strong> And for reasons unclear, there are state-mandated\u00a0gender-neutral toy aisles<\/a>, which include escalating fines for noncompliance.<\/p>\n

So, now, with all these displays of public madness, California is circling the toilet bowl.<\/p>\n

Quite frankly, the golden state has run out of money to finance all the bloat, grift, incompetence, and stoopid diktats.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

This was the conclusion that was recently provided by the Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office.\u00a0 From the\u00a0Executive Summary<\/a>\u00a0of California\u2019s 2024-25 Fiscal Outlook:<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia Faces a $68<\/strong>\u00a0Billion Deficit.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Largely as a result of a severe revenue decline in 2022?23, the state faces a serious budget deficit. \u00a0Specifically, under the state\u2019s current law and policy, we estimate the Legislature will need to solve a budget problem of $68\u00a0billion in the upcoming budget process.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

If you didn\u2019t know, in California the top 1 percent of taxpayers pay 50 percent of state income tax.\u00a0 The top 0.1 percent pays a third.\u00a0 Politicians exploit this progressive tax system by making outrageous promises to the non-taxpaying masses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As\u00a0CalMatters<\/a>\u00a0notes, Governor Newsom will likely close the record deficit by dipping into $24 billion of emergency funds and by commandeering $10 billion previously allocated for transportation, environmental and education programs.<\/p>\n

By our rough calculation that cuts the $68 billion deficit in half.\u00a0 Where will the other $34 billion come from?\u00a0 Will the top 1 percent pay it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Come January 1, the top income tax rate spikes to 14.4 percent, up from 13.3 percent. \u00a0Moreover, workers making over $61,214 will pay 10.4 percent of their income to the state, which is up from the current 9.3 percent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is in addition to federal income tax, social security tax, medicare tax, sales tax, property tax, and numerous other licensing fees and exactions.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the inflation tax.<\/p>\n

This is why in many parts of California a pre-tax income of $61,214 won\u2019t get you very far.<\/p>\n

Indeed, California\u2019s a great state to be from.\u00a0 Thus as California circles the toilet bowl the\u00a0state exodus<\/a>\u00a0goes on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Today, more than ever, unconventional investing ideas are needed.\u00a0 Discover how to protect your wealth and financial privacy, using the\u00a0Financial First Aid Kit<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSun, 12\/17\/2023 – 11:40<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/california-circles-toilet-bowl<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California Circles The Toilet Bowl Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com, \u201cI go with the word \u2018serious.\u2019\u00a0 A serious budget problem.\u00a0 I would stop short…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1444397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1444397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1444397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1444397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1444397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}